When True Love Comes Knocking
by Clev
Summary: Spoilers up to episode 2x06. 11 years ago Emma was hurt by Neal and never looked back. Now just when she's gotten used to living among fairy tale characters. Who should come knocking but the man she's been trying to forget? Neal is willing to do what ever it takes to win her back. But with Emma's heart already damaged, can she trust Neal again, when he's hiding secrets of his own.
1. Do all Roads Lead to Destiny

The rain fell heavily as Neal came home from his job. Tired and beat after going through the files on the newest case he was working on. It was almost ironic that he was now working with the law under a fake name and alias Jack Cleaner as a lawyer. When l1 years ago Neal had been driving around most of America, a petty thief pilfering ever shop and local convenience store with his girlfriend and true love Emma Swan.

Emma who he had betrayed to the cops and since he was still in love with her that was why turning her in had stung all the more. It should have been him in their behind those bars for 11 months in prison not her, never his lovely Emma. This was why he still had the dream catcher that hung over his bed and why every day when he got home he waited hoping today would be the day when August, the man who was responsible for ruining what could have been a happy future with a wife and family, would send a letter telling him that Emma had done what she was supposed to do.

It started to thunder and Neal made his way over to the window to close it, but the blasted wood refused to give as he yanked hard on it and then his phone which he took out of his pocket fell from his grasp and down crashing as it hit the pavement below. "Dammit," Neal shouted his hand in his hair when he heard the sound of wings and a dove flew over and onto the window sill. A tiny piece of paper was tied to its leg and unraveling it he now held in his hand a postcard with the word broken on it written in dark ink, while on the other side was a picture of the clock tower with the words, "Greetings from Storybrooke."

The last question Neal had ever asked August came back to him, "How will I know when you've succeeded?"

"I'll send you a postcard," was August reply before walking away from Neal's sight and leaving him with nothing but regret as Neal walked down the docks and hailed a cab. "Where to the driver?" asked looking at Neal.

"Wherever's the nearest and cheapest Hotel," Neal answer as the car sped away from the docks. While from the back seat Neal put his head in his hands and wept bitterly for the life he could have had with Emma, and now possible never would.

It didn't take Neal even a second to make the rash, but what he knew was the right choice as he stuffed everything he owned into several bags and ran down the stair pasted the couple who owned the laundry matt that he lived above. Reaching into his pocket, Neal grabbed the keys to his apartment and with a quick explanation and apologizing for not leaving a two weeks' notice. He was out the door and running down the street to purchase a ticket for a bus that would drop him off at the closet bus stop to the town of Storybrooke, Main.

As Neal settled back into his seat across from a guy who was 3 times his size in weight and muscle, he stared out the window as the bus gave a screeching in sound and rolled forward away leaving behind the bright lights and heavy traffic of New, York City. The sound of the rain hitting the windows lolling him off to sleep, just wait for me Emma , I'll find you, I promise I will always find you.


	2. True Love May or May Not be a Bumpy Road

**I do not own Once Upon a time I simply am borrowing the characters for my own enjoyment. **

The bus stopped for moment outside a small rest area and the driver enounced a 15 minute stop for everyone to exit the bus and stretch their legs.

Needing to unwind for the moment Neal took the advantage after shaking the sleep from his still somewhat groggy eyes. That and he really had to go. Neal had been in such a mad dash to see Emma as soon as possible that he had forgotten to use his restroom before leaving his old apartment. So as soon as he awoke with his bus mates head a little too close for comfort and the lower half of his body practically screaming, he stumbled out and through the double doors into the cold night air and into the bathroom almost tripping on the floor. Because in his hurry Neal hadn't noticed the stupid wet floor sign that was probed against the men's door.

After all this things only turned worse when Neal arrived to find the bus gone and the rain which had been but a drizzle before know become a tempest as it hurled down buckets of water from the sky and soaked his clothes and hair. If the world was attempting to make him miserable before, it was putting him through hell know, as he walked down the road. A car driving at an alarming speed through a puddle and soaking his shirt and face in a thick coat of mud. "Idiot," Neal shouted as the car sped away and whipped as much of the mud as he could away from his sleeve.

With no car and the bus gone and the only things he owned was the wallet tucked safely in his jacket and the clothes he wore Neal new he had little chance of survival. "Well Emma," Neal spoke out loud not caring if any one heard, "it looks like I won't have to worry about your parents murdering me in cold blood because this storm is going to do it for them." Drawing the jacket as tight as he could around himself waiting for the inevitable and it probably would have come to if not for a truck showing up alongside the interstate and the driver an older man in his early 60's told him to hope on in.

"Well didn't you hear me Neal I said hop on in unless you like standing out there with the ducks?"

Neal climbed into the truck, "how'd you now my name?" his teeth chattering.

"Change your clothes first," spoke the older man reaching behind him and laying a sack on Neal's lap, "and buckle your seat belt. Only then will I answer your questions on the way to Storybrooke," watching Neal's eyed turn wide with shock at how the other man new where Neal wanted to go.

Neal did as he was told drying his hair at the end with the towel he had found in the sack and drawing the black sweaters hood tightly around his neck. "Alright old man spill it who are you and how do you know who I am?"

"My names Brandon Grimm but you can call me your Guardian Angel."

"Wait Grimm as in the brothers Grimm like Little Red Riding Hood, Three little Pigs?"

"They were my ancestors and as you and I both know there not exactly stories eyeing Neal."

"I don't know what you talking about?"

"Oh really let's see your birth certificate says, Neal Cassady and lists your date of birth as March 23, 1977. But no one knows you're really birthdate since you were found wondering the streets when you were 14 dressed in strange garments on March 23, 1991."

"You spent the next four years in the foster system moving from home to home because of your emotional difficulties and were sent to a number of psychologists to try and help you. But after a while people just gave up and stopped trying to help you. When you were eighteen you were turned out of the system and left on your own."

"A few months later you made your first heist in order to survive. It was as a thief that you discover your gift and the thrill of the chasse that came with stealing. By the time you were 20 you were wanted in Tallahassee, Florida and a few other places. When you were 23 you met Emma Swan after she broke into a car you stole and you fell in love with her and started to want to turn your life around after several months of being on the road with her. But fate had other plans for you and so you were separated from each other. Ending the life the three of you should have had, had fate taken a different route and Emma was never meant to be the savior. So yay forgive me if I'm wrong Mr. Cassady but I think I know exactly what I am talking about."

"So you basically pulled me over to tell me there's no hope, great you should have just left me to die and what do you mean three?" Neal's mind catching up with and onto the words Brandon had spoken. "You don't mean his face turning pail. Oh no she wasn't, was she, please don't tell me she was pregnant not in that awful place not in jail?"

"I wish that wasn't the case but I'm afraid it is Neal your son was born in jail and adopted two months later."

"So why tell me all this Brandon?"

"Because Neal I need you to understand that Emma was always meant to be your true love, just as you were always meant to be hers. Emma being the savor has a long battle ahead of her and whether she likes it or not she is going to need your help."

"My Help know offense I don't know if you noticed but I don't exactly have the skills to help with whatever fairytale evil Emma is going to be facing."

"True you don't at least not in our world, but in Storybrooke you will Neal. In fact you have the capacity to be one of the…"

"Wait let me guess you're going to say, you're a Wizard Neal!" spoke Neal in a joking manner.

Brandon simply rolled his eyes and gave a long sigh as well. "No I was going to say you have the capacity to be a Grimm in fact one of the greatest Grimm's of all time."

"Okay just one question what the heck is a Grimm besides being your family's name and you no writing fairytales?"

"A Grimm in our case is another name for a seayer someone who has certain abilities the first is vaguely similar to those so called fortune tellers claim to have. Of course it's a lie unless they're a Grimm, meaning they will have the Grimm mark a large dragon curled around an orb much like the one on the left side of your neck. While the other deals with one of the 7 elements: fire, water, earth, air, light, darkness, and metal. You know the saying the pen is mightier than the sword well in our case the term is all too true Neal."

"Alright then why aren't there more of us why are we both running free instead of locked up in a prison Brandon?"

"Because our kind Neal I'm afraid is not what we once were in fact as of now you and I are the only two Grimm's in existence, the rest were all killed of years ago. Only Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm managed to escape from the enchanted forest and built a life here in this world where they were forced to bled in and unable to use their abilities to a certain existent."

"Because this world has no magic?" Neal looked at Brandon with a knowing look.

"Exactly aside from Storybrooke this world remains untouched but even in Storybrooke, Maine the magic there is tricky and complicated to wield. A thing Rumpelstilsken did not see when he dropped the potion of true love into the well that returns what was once lost. And for you it will be even trickier having no experience in the art of casting spells yourself. Which is where I come in my dear boy after all ever Grimm needs an apprentice and every apprentice needs a master. Oh and from now on you can call me by my preffered name he smiled."

"And what would that be?" Neal asked.

"Merlin," replied Brandon, "call me Merlin."

Note if any one notices the Harry Potter referces congrats and if not. I still hope you enjoyed the chapter and feel free to throw any ideas you have my way. As most of my focus does reside in my other OUAT fan fiction which I have written up to chapter 13 I just haven't edited it yet. Also I will most likely post my chapters in no particular time frame since I am busy with my classes.


	3. Should you Save Evil from a Rabbit Hole

**Once again I do not own once upon a time if I did let's just see several things would be way different and we still would only be half way through the first season. **

At the last moment, just as the hat became active and it sucked in the wraith, the dark creature's bony hands, grabbed Emma by the ankle and yanked her through the hole. Emma had just enough time to see out of the corner of her eyes Mary Margret grab onto her and David run forward before the dark void swallowed them both. While her last thoughts were of her son Henry the kid she had grown to love and her son who she was now leaving behind. "I'm so sorry Henry," Emma whispered into the shadows before darkness took her.

Emma awoke trying to shake the pounding in her head from where her body had hit the ground. She opened her eyes and saw two women standing over her, one with light brown hair with a crown of flowers weaved through it and wearing a purple dress, and the other an oriental woman with long black hair brought back in a ponytail and dressed in armor. Emma grasped the end of her gun in hand to pull it out with the intent on firing. Before Emma was able to get the gun out of its holster, the female knight had grabbed the now awake, but slightly still disoriented Mary Margret from behind and held her sword blade near Mary Margret's neck.

The rough blade touching the skin, "drop it or I cut her threw," said Mulan tightening her handle on the swords long shaft.

"Look I don't know what's going on? But whatever it is were not responsible so you can drop you sword and take it away from my friends neck know!"

"Wrong our prince is known dead because of you!" shouted Mulan gripping the sword's handle even tighter.

"Prince what prince?" asked Emma.

Mulan pointed to where both Emma and her mother could see a still form his face white and frozen by deaths kiss.

Mary Margret gasped no as she looked with recognition "Phillip?"

"Wait you know who he is? Emma looked at her mother for conferment

"His name is Phillip," Mary Margret told her daughter, "his parents King Hubert and Queen Nassarie were my Aunt and Uncle making Phillip my cousin by extension. Which means this women pointing to the one in the dress must be Aurora knowing full well of her elder cousin's true love for his betrothal."

"Wait Aurora as in sleeping beauty with the three fairies, maleficent and cursed just because the girl pricked her finger on spinning wheel?" Emma asked trying to connect the girl in front of her with the blond haired women she remember from Disney's animated classic, Sleeping Beauty.

"Enough with the talk," Mulan said, "drop the weapon."

Emma did as she was told dropping the gun on the group where it was then picked up and tucked out of sight by Mulan. Then both of their hands were tied together with rope and fastened to the end of a horse's back before being dragged of behind Aurora and the other women who Emma had over herd Aurora call Mulan. "What is this place Emma?" asked as they were forced across the shore of a beach.

"Our home," answered Mulan dragging off their prisons to what she was determined to be an ill fate.

After a half an hour of walking they arrived at camp filled with you wooden cabins and people of all ages dressed in tattered clothing. "Your refugees? Emma asked Mulan while looking around the camp from where no royal flag hung and the after math of war was evident.

"Were survivors," was Mulan's reply her voice filled with disgust at the other women's view at how they were living and handing her horse over to one of the camp's groomsmen.

As they were stepping into the camp it was at this opportunity that Mary Margret took Aurora by surprise and slammed into her, "Emma run," she told her daughter as they fled the camp.

Emma and her mother didn't get far as Mulan tossed a wooden bolas tripping Merry Margret and knocking her out. Emma had a choice to make she could get away or stay with her friend. The decision was simple as she was dragged away to a large underground pit and shoved into darkness once more.

"Do you need help?" Emma heard from the shadows where a figured stood.

"Who are you?" Emma looked up from where she was kneeling over Mary Margret's unconscious form.

"A friend," the voice answered stepping into the light and revealing an older woman with some wrinkles and brown hair. "My names Cora," she told Emma.


	4. Can you Trust a Grimm Who May be Insane?

Crazy well at least that's what Neal would have considered the bearded man with pepper grey hair and green eyes that was behind the wheel of the old pickup truck, if Brandon had pulled this same stick on Neal 11 years ago. But all that had changed when August Booth showed up 11 years ago and reminded Neal of the one thing that he had been trying to forget for 9 long years, his past. For years Neal had drowned himself in the thrill of steeling, conning and escaping capture. Rather than drowning his wows in the other vices and far more dangerous alternatives to one's health that this world had to offer. So when Brandon Grimm told Neal he was also Merlin. Neal wasn't about to suggest that the older man needed to have his eyes examined nor open the door and hurl himself out of the moving vehicle.

No instead the thought that his life was turning much into an altered version of the Disney Movie: the Sorcerer's Apprentice, in which Hollywood Actor Nicholas Cage played Merlin's apprentice Balthazar Blake, surfaced to the for front of his mind. And as strange as it was it sort of made sense, after all Balthazar had been and still was Neal's middle name. No matter what world he was in, it was the one and the only thing Neal had kept and held onto, after leaving his past behind and trying to make a future in the modern world he had found himself in for the first time 21 years ago. The only difference was he felt more like the character of Dave, the reluctant sorcerer's apprentice, than his close name sake.

"Merlin just one question about this truck of yours" Neal asked, "are you sure this thing is you no safe? Because most cars shouldn't I don't know be coughing out smoke."

"Course its safe why do you think I live in it Neal?"

"You live in this thing?" asked Neal turning backwards to see sure enough one duffel bag sitting in the back of the truck atop a mattress.

"Yes. Now that we have both established my precarious living arrangements you may want to hold onto something," said Merlin placing his hand on the roof of the car.

Until know Neal hadn't noticed Merlin's left hand was covered with a mechanical looking glove with the insignia of a dragon on it and the ends that covered the nails reminded one of a pen. As Merlin's hand moved along the cars side Neal noticed he was scratching out strange black ink like marking that appeared instantly on the car's interior. Then all of a sudden the car stopped coughing as it changed from an old broken down truck into a sleek modern sports car and with a flick of Merlin's wrist he moved the throttle forward and the car moved down the highway at an alarming speed. The tree's and houses off to the side going by in a blur. Dodging cars left and right as Merlin moved the vehicle with accuracy and precision. While Neal held onto the door's handle for dear life.

"If you need to exterminate your partially digested food please do it through the window I just waxed the seats this morning!" Merlin shouted over the loud hum of the engine. "At this rate we should be in Storybrooke in a matter of moments, in fact oh their it is," pointing to the sign that said welcome to Storybrooke and then was gone from their sight as they continued to drive down the road past trees.

It was early morning and Gold was opening his shop when from behind him he felt a strange burst of gust almost like magic but yet different in some way. Turning he saw a blur of silver past beyond his vision and then head father up along the road from sight swerving as it turned the corner. The swerving of the car allowed Gold just enough of a glimpse to see that the object in question was a silver sports car with TSITS 1963 written along the car's license plate before it disappeared from sight beyond the bend. The road in question Gold knew led straight up to the old abandoned cabin, the same cabin in which Gold had met up with August and was tricked by him. There was only one person Gold knew who could be possibly heading there and yet the question remained. How had Merlin escaped the curse?

The car slowed to a halt as it reached the end of the road and pulled up alongside the cabin where it stopped. Changing from the sleek new car in had previously been back into an old truck and let out a large puff of smoke from its exhaust pipes as it drew to a halt and the engine was shut off.

Both doors were opened and Merlin came out followed by Neal who gingerly crawled out of the car and emptied his stomach onto the front pooch while trying to fill his lungs with the cool morning air.

Merlin reached into the pocket of his trench coat and pulled out a bottle handing it over to Neal. "Hear take this it will help with the nausea," uncorking the top.

Neal stood up to drown a gulp of the strange green liquid and spit it out instantly, "what is this stuff? It takes like crap."

"I said it would help not that it tastes good come on now drink it up," said Merlin.

Neal reluctantly finished the strange mixture and handed the empty bottle over to his mentor. "Well I have two questions for you one I thought you said you couldn't use magic outside of Storybrooke and two are you insane? Neal shouted his face fuming with anger at being driven cross country faster than what was supposed to be humanly possible.

"I said there were limits on a Grimm's magic outside of Storybrooke Neal I never said it was impossible that's the one difference that we Grimm's have from wizards, sorcerers, magicians and anything else that can use magic. Of course it takes up a lot of strength using it that's why I save it for emergencies like this one. Oh and to answer your other question," he held up his fingers a few inches apart, "yes I may be just a little bit," he smiled a wide Cheshire grin before heading for the cabin. "Be a good and boy and get our bag out of the truck would you Neal?"

"My bag but I left in on the…" scrambling to open the truck where there were indeed two bags sitting. The first was Merlin's duffel and the other was his own duffel bag from which out of the top his dream catcher could be seen. "Thank you,"Neal told Merlin before picked up his bag and swinging it over his shoulder.

"You're welcome I figured that piece of Native American culture must be pretty important to you considering by using my seayer's abilities I was able to see that one of your memories with Emma is woven through out that thing, Neal."

"So your abilities allow you to see what, memories?" Asked Neal slightly afraid at what the older Grimm had seen and that Merlin would either be appalled or fearful of Neal's ability to dive in other people's dreams.

"Exactly any object that I touch I can see the memories that surround it, and that Native American dream catcher has quite a few but yours seem to be the most prevalent considered it's been around you for so long and absorbing your dreams. Though the one thing I did notice was that some of the one you seem to be having are not your own Neal. My guess is your ability as a Grimm which you've been having the seeing part any way for quite some time allows you to see other people's dreams, nightmares, and terrors?"

Neal simply nodded his head, "ever since I was fourteen they started happening it's why they used to take me to the psychiatrists because they thought I was crazy when I told people about the things I saw. But I'm not," the tears dripping down his eyes as the memories that he had long kept buried began to resurface.

Merlin wasn't a sentimental man, but something about the way the boy was so upset reminded him of when he had first discovered his own abilities as a Grimm and his father used to hold him in his arms as he cried his heart out. Neal had no father, this Merlin knew as the boy had been abandoned by both of his parents at different stages in the young man's life. Merlin made his way over to the boy and put his hands on his shoulders, "I know you're not. That's why I'm going to help you learn how to control your abilities okay, everything is going to be okay Neal. Come on I don't know about you but I'm starving," picking up his bag and heading for the door.

Neal had almost expected rejection, but instead he was being given accepted for what he was and the offer to learn how to deal with being a Grimm. A Grimm, finally after years of fear and confusion under the tutelage of Merlin Neal felt he would be on his way to understanding who he was. Thus Neal wiped the tears from his eyes glad to find a mentor and at last a friend aside from Emma who understood him. Even if the man was just a tiny bit insane.


End file.
